UTM tracking for digital marketing
Regardless of which industry you operate in, the Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) is a must-have for digital marketing and research. Tracking and reporting performance is one of the most fundamental steps when setting up a campaign, and thanks to Google, evaluating the effectiveness of digital marketing campaigns has never been easier.
But what exactly is UTM tracking, why is it so important, and how can it benefit your company?
What is UTM tracking?
Derived from the name of Urchin Tracker, a web analytics software that served as a base for Google Analytics, a UTM code is a simple snippet of code that you can add to the end of a URL to track the performance of campaigns and content. This code allows you to retrieve information regarding where visitors are coming from and has the necessary tools to analyze what your users values and what prompts them to visit your website. By tracking five standard variants of UTM parameters, you are able to get a clearer picture of the overall performance of the campaign.
- Traffic source
You can determine where the traffic originated with this parameter. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or the name of an email list are a few examples of sources you may track.
- Medium
The Medium UTM parameter tracks what type of traffic the visitors originated from, such as social, display, CPC, and so on.
- Campaign name
It enables you to monitor the success of a particular campaign, which is helpful when delivering two different initiatives, like on Facebook and via email.
- Content
This parameter will track which link was clicked if you have multiple link clicks pointing to the same URL, such as in the case of an email with two CTAs.
- Keyword term
This parameter, which is only used for paid search ads, tracks which keyword term a visitor came from.
Why are UTM codes so important?
Each UTM code is personalized to its corresponding campaign, providing the necessary insights to analyze which one is successful and which one is not reaching the desired objectives. By using UTMs, you can see exactly where your traffic is coming from and how it is interacting with your website. This can be particularly useful for identifying which marketing channels are driving the most traffic and conversions, as well as for understanding the behavior of your website visitors. Another benefit of tracking data in such granular detail is that you are able to see where there are areas of opportunity on your website.
You can use this URL Builder to build your UTM parameters into your URL.
https://ga-dev-tools.web.app/ga4/campaign-url-builder/
Once you’ve finished generating these parameters, simply paste the resultant URL into your campaigns, landing pages, social links…
UTM best practices
- Shorten your codes
The lengthy link may confuse your visitors or appear disorganized. Even for the experienced, a long-coded URL might startle people out of their reverie and serve as a reminder that they are being targeted for marketing. By developing a branded link, you may avoid this. Customers will see a considerably shorter URL as a result, not a lengthy series of letters and numbers. It has a nice appearance and is frequently configurable.
- Be specific
With UTM parameters, you get what you put in. Your efforts will be in vain if you share something on LinkedIn with the source tag “social-media.” This ambiguous tag will carry over to any other platforms, such as Facebook or Twitter, but it will prevent you from tracking and reporting on your efforts within LinkedIn.
- Use lowercase
Grammar norms do not apply because this is not blog writing. By using lowercase, you may make your efforts simpler and avoid mistakenly launching two campaigns with the same name, such as “LinkedIn” or “LinkedIn.” Your reports will be divided into several rows, resulting in diluted results.
Conclusion:
UTM monitoring may completely transform your marketing approach and provide you with tons of data to help you make decisions that will have an impact. Therefore, be sure to utilize it to fine-tune your advertisements and determine what most appeals to your audience.